Behind the Scenes of the Cross Country Rally: Episode One

Hamish McKenzie, Lead Writer10 april 2014

When it comes to driving across the United States, certain times are more difficult than others. The middle of winter is one such time. Nevertheless, Tesla’s Cross Country Rally team wasn’t deterred from attempting to set a Guinness World Record for an electric vehicle traveling across the U.S.

At midnight on January 30, a team of 15 engineers and Supercharger staffers set off on the historic journey with two Model S’s and a film crew in tow. The goal was to get from Los Angeles to New York in three days, stopping only to refuel the cars at Superchargers. Over the course of the next 76 hours, our film crew documented the trip in detail, tracking the cars as they cruised through sandstorms, snowstorms, and icy roads, and interviewing the drivers at each stop along the way. What they captured was a team determined to set a record despite inclement conditions, and two cars that breezed through every obstacle a harsh winter could put in their way.

Today, we’re unveiling the first episode in a three-part series that goes behind the scenes of that journey, showing what it was like to be part of a world record team. This episode takes the viewer from the opening party at Tesla’s Los Angeles design studio through the desert scrublands of Arizona, and into Utah, where the cars cut through swirls of red-sand whirlwinds en route to Colorado, and a mountain pass that was due to receive 30 inches of snow in just 36 hours...